Duterte to appoint Hotline 8888 chief
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2019 05:48:28 +0000
President Duterte is set to name a secretary to oversee the operations of the 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Hotline after he raised several issues concerning the public service hotline.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea made the statement after Duterte said in an administration senatorial campaign sortie last week that the hotline was inaccessible at times and threatened to shut down the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. if it fails to resolve the problem.
In an interview over DZMM, Medialdea said they also decided to create another office to man it.
“In a few weeks, we will have another secretary who will be on top of this,” he said.
“Titingnan yung complaints, ano ang volume…hindi namin na-anticipate na ganito kadami yung tawag, talagang magba-bog down ang makina diyan,” he added.
Also called the “President’s Hotline,” the 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Hotline was established in 2016 through Executive Order No. 6. It is dedicated to complaints against fixers, scalawag officials, and poor government services.
Medialdea said that they are looking into adding text messaging as another option to the 8888 Citizens’ Complaint Hotline to improve its services.
“Isang aspeto na ginagawa natin in addition to calls, baka pwedeng text messaging na lang – by call and text messages,” he said.
According to the Palace official, the hotline’s existing 80 lines are not enough to accommodate the heavy volume of calls.
“Nagkakaproblema nga dahil sa sobrang heavy volume of calls. Ngayon kasi, nakakatanggap ng 80 simultaneous calls but ang problema ‘di talaga kaya,” Medialdea said.
“We have to upgrade it. Kung kayang doblehin kaagad, gawin na,” he added.
According to Medialdea, 20 lines have been added to “augment the present requirement.” With these, the hotline now has 100 lines. (Argyll Geducos)